Parker AZ, 4/17-4/20

[skidemn]

So our story began almost a year ago with plans to fish the week at Lake Alamo, but with the current state of super high, muddy water, we made contingency plans to fish the Parker Strip for the smallmouth bite, which is exactly what happened.


Day 1-
We got on the water about 3:30pm Monday afternoon, and we found our first fish of the trip in the grass lines right outside the La Paz County Park launch ramp. I had started with a spinner bait, but after Scott hit a few fish on the Berkley Stunna jerkbait in purple tint, I switched over and immediate got hit as well. It was windy and white-capped, which effectively hid the bed fish we knew were around, so we began fishing the docks. We started with dropshot rigs using 1/4-3/8oz weights as the current was strong enough to keep you from hitting bottom if you didn't use enough weight. We fished 4.5" & 6" Roboworms, with Scott starting off using Desert Craw color and me using the Mike Folkestad Special color, targeting all the shaded areas around the docks and under the waterfront decks. While we both caught fish, Scott was getting more bites and it was after a couple of the fish he landed spit up crawdads, that I decided to make a change. All the crawdad had a brownish orange coloring with mottled green mixed in—the exact color of the Roboworm Desert Craw color Scott was fishing, so I made the switch. We finished with 32 smallmouth to 3lbs by the end of day.

Day 2-
On Tuesday we picked up right where we left off, hitting the docks immediately left of the boat launch with our dropshots, and the bite was solid all morning. I had picked up some of those new Megasbass Sleeper Craws before we left, and after seeing what the fish spit up yesterday, I decided to give them a try. While I had fewer bites than Scott fishing the dropshot, all my bites were bigger quality fish. I landed several smallies between 2 and 3 pounds on the green pumpkin/blue flake before switching back to a dropshot. Before lunch we hit the "high rent district" canals and picked up another 7 fish off of beds, including a largemouth and a big red ear sunfish that choked my Roboworm. As an aside, we released all the bed fish right where we hooked them, so as not to hurt their spawn. After lunch we went upriver and fished the docks just below the Parker Dam for several more smallmouth, then moved over to the opposite bank where the water is shallower, faster, and has lots of boulders to hide fish. I tossed a 6" Magdraft and had two 3lb+ smallmouth that just hammered it, making for an exciting bite in the clear water as you see the dark shapes come up and slam the pearl white bait. I then missed a third one after the magnet came out of the bait and I had to bury one of the trebles into the body to keep it from dangling, but that makes the remaining points less exposed and harder to stick the fish (more on this later). After I hit my second fish on the Magdraft, my buddy switched from a jerkbait to a Big Dipper white trash color swimbait and smacked a 6lb striper. After moving out of that area we targeted the grass lines toward the middle of the river, and stuck a ton of fish on the Berkley Stunna and Luckycraft jerkbaits. We finished the day with over 50 fish between us.

Day 3-
We started Wednesday headed to Blythe, CA to fish a section of the river for largemouth bass, however the wind was so bad down there that we had to come back to Parker. We ended up getting a later start but continued our pattern fishing the docks. While Scott threw the dropshot, I opted to put some real effort into the Sleeper Craw and target the bigger bites. As expected, he had more bites, but I had the bigger ones. I never had a fish less than 2lbs on the Sleeper Craw, while Scott had a ton of small fish with a few larger ones mixed in. I had 15 fish on the Sleeper Craw before noon, including a 3.04 largemouth and a 4.01 smallmouth. We went upriver again after lunch and since I was targeting the big bites, I threw the Magdraft while Scott went with the jerkbait. He managed another 16 or 17 fish on the jerkbait, while I missed 6 solid bites on the Magdraft. I even watched 3 fish come up and eat it without getting hooked. I know I got a little too excited on one bite, pulling the bait out of the mouth of the fish before he fully had it, but it was a mystery why I couldn't hook the others until a lightbulb went on the next day. I finished the day with a jerkbait, managing several more smallies. We finished the day with almost 65 fish, and all of my fish in the livewell were over 3lbs.

Day 4-
On Thursdays they lower the flow of water through the Parker Dam, so the current is severely reduced and the water level drops. This limits access to some of our spots upriver, as a few of them were in only three feet deep at normal water level. We decided to again begin with what has been working, so Scott continued pitching his 4.5" dropshot, and I pitched a 1/4oz Owner shakey head with 6" Desert Craw, hoping to find more of the bigger units. We followed our same pattern, targeting the shaded areas around docks with wood pilings or the ends of docks with concrete bases. Scott managed to stick the largest smallmouth of our trip, a 4.81lb beauty, right at one of these spots. After finishing our dock run we moved around checking a few places, but finally settled on the long grass beds that had been productive all week. While Scott was busy pulling fish after fish after fish on the jerkbait, the lightbulb finally clicked and I remembered watching a Chris Zaldain YouTube video about the Magdraft that solves my problem. Chris specifically showed how to bend out one of the treble points to anchor into the body, and then the most important part of bending the remaining two points together like a frog hook or albacore trolling hook. This little gem solved my hookup problem and I managed to land another handful of fatties on the Magdraft, which is quickly becoming a favorite bait to fish. We ended up calling it a day around 4pm and finished with our best day of the trip, landing over 80 smallmouth, of which Scott had almost 40 on the jerkbait alone. It was an absolutely epic trip, despite having to bailout on our initial destination, and fishing almost none of the $800+ I spent acquiring specific crankbaits, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and flipping jigs for Alamo over the last 6 months.








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[skidemn]

A few more pics!








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[apenland01]

Awesome, thanks for the report and all the pics!

My friends that have fished Alamo the past month or so say it's awful.  All our lakes are full at the moment, except the ones in Northern AZ (Mead/Powell).  But Havasu/Martinez and those others have decent water clarity and good fishing at the moment.

Congratulations again on a great day!

[Donald Garner]

Congrats on the catching there.  Tks for sharing the trip and all those pictures with us.  Those were some very healthy looking bass there.

[skidemn]

Thank you guys, I'm still super excited for how this trip turned out!


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[Mike Cork]

Those are some awesome fish. Thanks for sharing the outing and all the photos... Super Jealous of the small mouth you caught